Meet the new voice of Harley-Davidson in York

Whenever a new face emerges on my beat, I do what comes natural to us journalists:

I creep.

On Facebook. On LinkedIn. On the U.S. Courts database.

Turns out, I didn't have to creep
very far to learn about the new -
but very familiar - voice of Harley-
Davidson in York.

She served as the county's first
full-time public information officer,
speaking about anything from 911 to
hazmat.

She's also worked in communications at Exelon's Peach Bottom
Atomic Power Station.

And, if you've been paying attention, you've read Bernadette Lauer's name in this paper before - at least 98 times between 2005 and now to be exact, according to our archives.

(Yep, I creeped.)

The new Harley spokeswoman is a graduate
of York County
Vocational-Technical School and
York College. She
started her career
as a weekend assignment editor at a local TV station and could also, probably, save
your life in a pinch.

She worked as a paid EMT for
York Hospital Emergency Department and a volunteer for Red Lion
Ambulance. She also volunteers
with the South Central Pennsylvania Critical Incident Stress Management Team and serves as the
president of York County Crime
Stoppers.

She stopped by the office Thursday to discuss her new role in communicating messages both
internally - meaning inside the
plant - and externally.

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That means communicating stuff
to you folks, from the latest move in
the company's restructuring to the
York-made Softail Night Train that
survived more than a year at sea following the tsunami in Japan.

O n Thursday, she communicated her own motorcycle story
that involved crashing a dirt
bike into the bushes as a teenager.
She doesn't currently own a Harley
- or any bike for that matter.

"I think that kind of scarred me
for a while," she said. "Now that I'm
right there with the bikes, it might
be time to take the rider's ed course
and go for it."

Why do we care? Because we
write about Harley-Davidson a lot.

Too much, some might say.

York County is ground zero for a
company wide restructuring that
began three years ago. The manufacturer has been here since 1973.

It just opened a new tour center
here.

You can check it out at the
Harley Open House Sept. 27
through 29. The event will feature
free self-guided tours of the newly
restructured plant, demo rides and
musical entertainment. I could go
on. And on. And on.

It's exciting stuff.

And it's pretty cool to have someone local - who grew up knowing
what Harley means to Yorkers -
speaking about that stuff.